Make health a priority: Milind Soman

Milind Soman, known for his passion for extreme sports, feels that people can inspire each other to practise healthy living. Among other things, the 52-year-old model turned actor completed Ultraman Florida, one of the most formidable triathlons around the world, early this year. During the three-day race, he covered 520 kilometres. He shares his thoughts with Femina on the importance of running and keeping fit:

How do people get motivated to run or stay fit in general?I think when people inspire each other, it leads to best results. Look at the way how running has become popular in all corners of India, a country that has no culture of fitness or sports or active lifestyle. Today thousands and thousands of people have started running and it's only by watching each other. Even globally millions of people run marathons and not because of some government initiatives - they get motivated by watching each other. They are discovering together the value of running. Look at an initiative like Pinkathon (women's run) where women participating in the event are inspiring their families to run and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It may not necessarily be running, but overall one should understand the importance of practising a proactive lifestyle. Women face a lot of challenges in their everyday lives - a lack of time for themselves, thanks to the myriad responsibilities they shoulder, is one of them. But making health a priority amidst all these is extremely important. Women understand this, but they often don't have the encouragement or motivation from society at large to make this happen. This is the gap women have started addressing. They are also inspiring others to make health a priority and realise the fact that it's perfectly okay to take time out for themselves.

What are your favourite pieces of wearable tech? Do you use any?I am not really into wearable tech. I don't have a lot of gadgets and I don't use them unless I am in a race to monitor things. For instance, I did the Florida Ultraman recently and that had some strict cut offs - you have to be sure about your pace and the distance that you have covered. In other words, you have to be sure that you are going to make the cut offs. In such instances, you need to have gadgets to help you determine whether you are meeting the targets or not.

What's your take on vegetarianism?I for one love the taste of non-vegetarian food. The only reason I eat non-veg food is because of the way it tastes, not because of any kind of nutritional value. I do eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I believe that the kind of nutritional value one gets from fruits and vegetables is far superior to that from meat.

A post shared by Milind Usha Soman (@milindrunning) on May 10, 2017 at 1:24am PDT

What is keeping you busy these days?I did Chef this year. It's the only film that I have worked on recently. I got an award for Nagrik, a Marathi film, last year. I was quite excited about it as it was my first.